SAUSAGE MEMES

When Keir Starmer leaves Downing Street for the final time, wouldn't it be wonderful if he were to remembered purely for sausages?  Of course there is far worse to come from the PM than a mere Biden-esque gaffe, but we'll enjoy the moment with a selection of sausage-themed memes currently flooding the internet...

SAUSAGES AND HECKLERS

Imagine all the effort that goes into preparing a 54 minute speech days before the speaker even stands up for 54 minutes to deliver it?  And yet despite all the intended talking points, quips and smug heckling comebacks, all that anyone will ever remember is the word 'sausages'?

Keir Starmer's disastrous premiership faced new mockery on Tuesday when he fumbled a single word during his keynote conference speech.  In referring to Gaza hostages he used the word 'sausages' instead of hostages.

Watch below.

As with Rachel Reeves' speech a day earlier, Starmer's speech did not go without protest.  Towards the end a young man shouted about Gaza, to which Starmer responded with a disparaging and hideously revisionist comeback: "This guy's obviously got a pass from the 2019 conference".  

Yes, because it's not as if you were a member of that 2019 shadow cabinet is it, Sir Squeaky?

Watch his Corbyn comeback below.

Starmer had been in the process of making a point about his sister being a care worker during the scamdemic.  This was yet another attempt to portray his supposed working class background, but earlier in the speech he referred to a childhood trip to Malta as a member of the Croydon Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in which he played the flute.  Typical working class lad, Sir Keir!

TOON TUESDAY #24

Freebies, freebies and more freebies.  That's the theme this week as the Labour freeloaders prepare to address their party conference...

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

Peter Brookes for The Times

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

Patrick Blower for The Daily Telegraph

REEVES HECKLER DRAGGED OUT

With protesters both outside the conference hall and inside it, Rachel Reeves struggled to keep her composure during her keynote speech on Monday.  The Chancellor defended cuts to the winter fuel allowance while elderly protesters gathered outside to condemn her.  However, it was Palestine and 'climate change' that inspired the hecklers who interrupted Reeves as she was in full flow.

As she attacked the Tories for 'paying the price of their incompetence', a young man began shouting about Palestine.  Another just in front of him attempted to unfurl a banner, but was prevented from doing so after an audience member grabbed it.  The heckler was then tackled by security guards and dragged away, just after he added that 'climate breakdown is on our doorstep'.  Others in the audience shouted 'free Palestine' and 'stop oil'.

Watch below.

Reeves' defiant comeback to the hecklers was so disingenuous as to do anything but placate anger.

A party of working people?  Not a party of protest?  You've done nothing but protest for the past 14 years and are now doing the very things that you demanded the Tories should not.  Shameless.

MEME MONDAY #5

Two tier Britain was on full display when Huw Edwards walked out of court a free man on Monday.  Injustices, hypocrisy and corruption were a theme that ran through the week.  Labour's buzz word is 'change', but we're going to see more of the same moving forward as they continue to mock the British people and unravel our liberties...

Mon 16 Sept - 167 shares

Wed 18 Sept - 8 shares (yes, eight)

Wed 18 Sept - 99 shares

Thurs 19 Sept - 194 shares

Fri 20 Sept - 201 shares

Fri 20 Sept - 159 shares

Sat 21 Sept - 139 shares

Sun 22 Sept - 146 shares

Sun 22 Sept - 227 shares

COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 19.09.24

There were eight seats up for grabs on Thursday, plus one contest held on Monday.  With the exception of Huntingdonshire, where Labour were newcomers, the Labour vote share was down in all the other seats.  They lost four seats in total, three to the Conservatives and one to the Lib Dems.  They held three others, despite huge swings to the Lib Dems in Cornwall, Reform in Hartlepool and a combination of the Greens and Workers Party in Westminster.

The Tories were defending three seats, two of which were successfully held in Hartlepool, while they lost to an independent in Huntingdonshire.

Sidemoor, Bromsgrove District Council

LDem: 276 (52.6%) +24.9%

Con: 141 (26.9%) +3.1%

Lab: 87 (16.6%) -29.2%

Grn: 21 (4.0%) New

LDem GAIN from Lab

Falmouth Penwerris, Cornwall County Council

Lab: 337 (44.7%) -19.8%

LDem: 228 (30.2%) +25.5%

Grn: 189 (25.1%) +16.6%

Lab HOLD

Burn Valley, Hartlepool Borough Council

Lab: 475 (47.5%) -21.5%

Ref: 399 (39.9%) +23.9%

LDem: 89 (8.9%) New

Grn: 36 (3.6%) New

Lab HOLD

St Neots Eatons, Huntingdonshire District Council

Ind: 531 (32.7%) New

LDem: 426 (26.2%) +2.3%

Con: 420 (25.9%) -5.4%

Ind: 125 (7.7%) New

Lab: 77 (4.7%) New

Grn: 45 (2.8%) -8.7%

Ind GAIN from Con

Harrow Road, Westminster City Council

Lab: 512 (44.2%) -27.5%

Grn: 244 (21.1%) New

WPB: 166 (14.3%) New

Con: 162 (14.0%) -3.9%

LDem: 63 (5.4%) -4.9%

Ind: 11 (0.9%) New

Lab HOLD

West End, Westminster City Council

Con: 627 (48.8%) +8.5%

Lab: 489 (38.1%) -10.5%

Grn: 94 (7.3%) New

LDem: 74 (5.8%) -5.3%

Con GAIN from Lab

Fairfield, Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (two seats)

Con (2): 1,291 & 1,181 (54.2%) +12.0%

Lab (2): 528 & 496 (22.2%) -4.4%

Ref (2): 344 & 304 (14.5%) +6.4%

Ind: 110 (4.6%) New

Grn: 62 (2.6%) New

LDem (2): 45 & 43 (1.9%) New

Con HOLD (two seats)

Marine, Worthing Borough Council

Con: 865 (40.7%) +7.9%

Lab: 781 (36.8%) -16.0%

Ref: 228 (10.7%) New

Grn: 138 (6.5%) -2.7%

LDem: 113 (5.3%) +0.1%

Con GAIN from Lab

Bestwood St Albans, Gedling Borough Council (held on Monday)

Con: 358 (47.8%) +16.3%

Lab: 300 (40.1%) -12.3%

LDem: 91 (12.1%) +6.3%

Con GAIN from Lab

Abbreviations

LDem = Liberal Democrat

Con = Conservative

Lab = Labour

Grn = Green

Ref = Reform UK

WPB = Workers Party of Britain

Ind = Independents

WHAT'S WRONG WITH WARSI?

Oddball Tory peer Baroness Warsi is a strange case indeed.  After being propelled to the House of Lords as a life peer in 2007 by then Tory leader Michael Howard, Warsi has rarely displayed anything in the way of conservative values.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  She behaves like a smug middle class leftist, while bizarrely maintaining the Tory whip.

Take this social media post from Sunday, in which she cheers on a far left activist who waved a placard depicting Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman as coconuts.  The racially charged message got Marieha Hussain into legal trouble, albeit she was cleared of a racially aggravated public order offence last week.

Warsi celebrated Hussain's acquittal with her own coconut reference.

While it could be said that Warsi was merely defending a fellow Muslim woman using a (derogatory) term that is common place in her culture, the problem is more over who she is defending.  Mariea Hussain, a teacher (quelle surprise?), had waved her hand drawn placard during a pro-Palestine march last November.  These marches were dominated by the hard left.  Why would a supposed Conservative peer get behind a far left Free Palestine marcher?

Is it racial solidarity?

While Warsi has frequently alluded to her Muslim background over the years, she is far from conservative when it comes to her faith, either.  She does not wear a head covering and was forced to abandon a visit to Luton in 2009 when she was confronted by Muslim thugs who pelted her with eggs.  During her single (failed) attempt to win a parliamentary seat in 2005, Warsi tried to appeal to the conservative values of Dewsbury's Muslim community by criticising Labour's repeal of Section 28, thus allowing homosexuality to be promoted in schools.  However, four years later (within the space of a parliamentary term had she been elected), Warsi was on board with same sex marriage and in 2013 apologised for her 'homophobic' campaign by declaring that the Tories were 'on the wrong side of history' in regards to gay rights.

In 2016 she claimed to have abandoned the Leave campaign because of its 'xenophobia' and 'hateful rhetoric', but Leave campaigners not only questioned whether she had ever joined the campaign, but fellow Tory peer Lord Hannan said she had outrightly rejected an endorsement.  Warsi went on to support a Remain vote.

Even when the Tory government lurched to the left during the Johnson/Sunak term, it was never woke enough for Warsi.  She was a frequent critic of home secretaries Priti Patel and Suella Braverman, who were both coincidentally of part-Hindu descent.  Warsi's hostility towards them was triggered by their posturing around controlling mass immigration, which she saw as a betrayal of their own ethnic background - hence her recent embrace of the 'coconut' insult.

She also lashed out recently at comments by Tory leadership contender Kemi Badenoch, which she described as 'appalling' and 'divisive'.  Badenoch had claimed that Reform UK had won seats on the back of 'sectarian Islamism'.

Warsi's X account is a sequence of race baiting posts, bemoaning racism and Islamophobia, as if Britain is Hell on earth for someone of colour.  As Britain's youngest peer, despite being the daughter of Pakistani immigrants, where is her sense of self awareness?  If the Tories are so horrible, why hold onto the party whip?  If Palestine concerns her more than Britain, why not join the Green Party or some other hideous far left outfit?

The truth is that Warsi has always been an opportunistic grifter who cannot contain her hostility towards Britain, probably stemming from some childhood trauma in which someone called her a 'Paki' one time or another.  In many ways she is no better than fellow race baiters Diane Abbott or Dave Lammy, but at least they are in the right party.

TOON TUESDAY #23

This week's theme is pensioners and trade unions, the link is not as tenuous as it may seem...

Graeme Bandeira for The Yorkshire Post

Ben Jennings for The Guardian

Matt Pritchett for The Daily Telegraph

Patrick Blower for The Daily Telegraph

Rob Murray for The Daily Telegraph

MEME MONDAY #4

The big Labour rebellion in defence of pensioners' winter fuel allowance failed to materialise on Tuesday.  Only one Labour MP could muster a moral compass to defy his government.  The same day his government began the early release of thousands of prison inmates, one of whom re-offended on the very same day - and that is the one we know about.  The very next day the government announced it was sending millions more to Ukraine, while British pensioners may freeze to death this winter.

With talk of Ukraine it was no surprise that the week ended with Starmer and Lammy in Washington DC to discuss furthering the conflict.  The following day there was another assassination attempt on the man who says he wants to stop the war.  "Go figure" as they say over there...

Tues 10 Sept - 132 Facebook shares

Wed 11 Sept - 251 shares

Wed 11 Sept - 469 shares

Thurs 12 Sept - 318 shares

Thurs 12 Sept - 135 shares

Fri 13 Sept - 112 shares

Sat 14 Sept - 173 shares

Sun 15 Sept - 151 shares

Sun 15 Sept - 42 shares

Sun 15 Sept - 81 shares

Sun 15 Sept - 9 shares

Sun 15 Sept - exclusive to X and GETTR

COUNCIL BY-ELECTIONS 12.09.24

Ten council contests this week, including three in London.  Labour held in Tower Hamlets with an increased vote share, but their vote fell in Hackney where they lost a seat to the Greens.

Elsewhere there were Labour holds in Cambridge, Gateshead and Milton Keynes, but the Labour vote was down in all three.  They gained a seat from the Conservatives on the Isle of Arran with a huge swing, due in part to the absence of an SNP candidate and the Scotting voting system.  The Labour vote was down in seven of the ten by-elections.

The Lib Dems held two of the three seats they were defending, but surrendered a seat to an independent candidate in Norfolk.  The Lib Dems chose not to defend the seat after the sitting councillor passed away, instead endorsing the independent candidate who ended up winning the seat.

Romsey, Cambridge City Council

Lab: 596 (42.8%) -2.7%

Grn: 409 (29.4%) +8.7%

LDem: 249 (17.9%) +3.4%

Con: 138 (9.9%) -9.3%

Lab HOLD

Bridges, Gateshead Borough Council

Lab: 320 (30.6%) -27.7%

LDem: 255 (24.4%) +13.0%

Grn: 253 (24.2%) +9.8%

Ref: 166 (15.9%) New

Con: 53 (5.1%) -10.9%

Lab HOLD

London Fields, Hackney London Borough Council

Lab: 746 (54.1%) -6.9%

Ind: 437 (31.7%) New

Con: 72 (5.2%) New

LDem: 71 (5.2%) -8.0%

WPB: 52 (3.8%) New

Lab HOLD

Stoke Newington, Hackney London Borough Council

Grn: 1,253 (53.0%) +19.5%

Lab: 945 (40.0%) -19.2%

LDem: 78 (3.3%) New

Con: 74 (3.1%) -4.1%

Ind: 12 (0.5%) New

Grn GAIN from Lab

Bletchley East, Milton Keynes City Council

Lab: 869 (49.7%) -7.1%

Con: 431 (24.7%) -0.7%

Ind: 147 (8.4%) New

Grn: 143 (8.2%) +2.6%

LDem: 127 (7.3%) +0.5%

Herit: 30 (1.7%) New

Lab HOLD

North Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne City Council

LDem: 740 (64.5%) +2.9%

Lab: 234 (20.4%) -6.0%

Grn: 93 (8.1%) -0.2%

Con: 35 (3.1%) -0.6%

Ref: 26 (2.3%) New

PoW: 19 (1.7%) New

LDem HOLD

Freebridge Lynn, Norfolk County Council

Ind: 723 (53.8%) New

Con: 454 (33.8%) +2.8%

Lab: 167 (12.4%) +5.8%

Ind GAIN from LDem

Arran, North Ayrshire Council

(first preference votes)

Lab: 748 (45.4%) +35.4%

Ind: 402 (24.4%) +2.4%

Grn: 340 (20.6%) +10.7%

Con: 90 (5.5%) -27.0%

Ref: 55 (3.3%) New

LDem: 12 (0.7%) New

Lab GAIN from Con (elected at stage 5)

North Walsham Market Cross, North Norfolk Council

LDem: 283 (46.5%) -3.8%

Con: 239 (39.3%) +1.8%

Grn: 53 (8.7%) New

Lab: 33 (5.4%) -6.7%

LDem HOLD

Bow East, Tower Hamlets London Borough Council

Lab: 1,266 (53.3%) +6.1%

Grn: 722 (30.4%) +14.1%

Con: 239 (10.1%) +4.4%

LDem: 148 (6.2%) -2.3%

Lab HOLD

Abbreviations

Lab = Labour

Grn = Green

LDem = Liberal Democrat

Con = Conservative

Ref = Reform UK

WPB = Workers Party of Britain

Herit = Heritage

PoW = Party of Women

Ind = Independents

ABSTAINERS PUT CAREER FIRST

Abstainers and absentees: Duffield, Allin-Khan and Johnson

Only one Labour MP voted against his government's winter fuel cut on Tuesday.  It remains to be seen whether Jon Trickett will have the whip removed, but that was the threat facing him and his colleagues ahead of the vote.  348 Labour MPs supported the government, while 52 abstained or were absent.

There was fierce criticism online for both those backing the cut as well as those who abstained.  The words 'SHAME ON YOU', 'cowardly' and 'gutless' all trended on X following the vote.  Canterbury's Rosie Duffield was one of those singled out after she admitted in an interview that maintaining the Labour whip was more important than voting against the fuel cut.  She abstained.  The clip can be seen below.

Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) was another MP who faced criticism after she excused herself from the vote for 'pre-arranged dental surgery'.  If she was so concerned for the lives of pensioners this winter, she would surely have postponed or rearranged her dentistry...

Rosena Allin-Khan (Tooting) was another who excused herself for medical reasons.  Dr Allin-Khan rose to fame during the scamdemic by returning to hospital work to help out in her role as a medical doctor.  The overwhelming majority of those who died from coronavirus were elderly (the average age of coronavirus death was 81), but Allin-Khan was not prepared to support them on this occasion.  She blamed an accident 'this week' that requires surgery.  With the vote taking place on Tuesday, she could only have fallen in the previous 48 hours.  The timing is questionable at best and 46 is not an age prone to hospital-worthy slips and trips...

Dawn Butler (Brent East) was also rinsed by X users for posting a video about mental health and not referring to the winter fuel cut at all.  She did not vote.

Rebecca Long-Bailey (Salford) was one of seven Labour MPs suspended by Starmer after having voted against the government over the child benefit cap.  However, unlike five of the others currently suspended, she abstained on Tuesday.  She posted a lengthy and evasive statement on social media that was signed off 'Rebecca Long-Bailey - Putting Salford First'.  It appears that the former leadership contender is more concerned with having the whip restored than putting her elderly constituents first.

Ian Lavery (Blyth & Ashington) posted a statement saying he had 'never voted to make his constituents poorer'.  He then went and abstained.  He also seems to have forgotten how he voted during the scamdemic, when he repeatedly voted for Covid legislation that made every single one of us poorer!

The general consensus is that the 52 Labour MPs who abstained or were absent are just as culpable for pensioners' deaths this winter as the 348 who backed the government.  While it is true to say that 52 votes would not have swung the outcome - such is Labour's huge majority - it would have provided a damaging blow to Keir Starmer and perhaps given red voters some hope that not all Labour MPs are career politicians.  Instead, by not having the moral compass or courage to defy Keir Starmer, they have shown everybody that their place on the gravy train is more important than the lives of their elderly constituents.

STARMER WINS FUEL CUT VOTE

A Tory attempt to block Labour's winter fuel allowance cuts has predictably failed in the Commons thanks to Labour's huge majority.  Despite support from the Lib Dems, Reform, Greens, SNP, Plaid, independents and all the Northern Ireland parties (excluding Sinn Fein), the Tories lost the vote 348-228.  52 Labour MPs abstained or were absent from the vote, but only one - Jon Trickett - voted against the government.

Labour MPs who abstained or did not register a vote

Diane Abbott

Tahir Ali

Rosena Allin-Khan

Fleur Anderson

Tonia Antoniazzi

Paula Barker

Lorraine Beavers

Hilary Benn

Matt Bishop

Elsie Blundell

Phil Brickell

Dawn Butler

Beccy Cooper

Marsha de Cordova

Stephen Doughty

Rosie Duffield

Neil Duncan-Jordan

Maria Eagle

Cat Eccles

Sarah Edwards

Clive Efford

Mary Foy

Gill Furniss

Paulette Hamilton

Sharon Hodgson

Leigh Ingham

Diana Johnson

Kim Johnson

Mike Kane

Naushabah Khan

Ian Lavery

Emma Lewell-Buck

Clive Lewis

Amanda Martin

Rachael Maskell

Andy McDonald

Grahame Morris

Kate Osamor

Kate Osborne

Bell Ribeiro-Addy

Jenny Riddell-Carpenter

Marie Rimmer

Naz Shah

Cat Smith

Sarah Smith

Euan Stainbank

Kenneth Stevenson

Nick Thomas-Symonds

Chris Webb

Nadia Whittome

Mohammad Yasin

Daniel Zeichner

It is not clear how many of these MPs abstained in protest, but there are reports that only 12 were absent from the chamber.  Several ministers were among those who did not vote, which will rattle Starmer if they deliberately abstained.

The seven members of the Socialist Campaign Group currently suspended from Labour following a previous rebellion, mostly continued their dissidence by backing the Tory motion.

Labour MPs currently suspended following a previous rebellion, voted as follows

Apsana Begum (for Tory motion)

Richard Burgon (for)

Ian Byrne (for)

Imran Hussain (did not vote)

Rebecca Long-Bailey (did not vote)

John McDonnell (for)

Zarah Sultana (for)

Jeremy Corbyn also backed the Tory motion.

It is not yet known if Starmer will strip Jon Trickett of the party whip.  The veteran MP, also a member of the Socialist Campaign Group, posted the following statement on his social media accounts.

Following the vote, the words 'SHAME ON YOU' trended on X.  Many users posted the words and tagged in Labour MPs who had voted for the fuel cut.  Some pointed out the hypocrisy of some MPs who had previously pledged to maintain the fuel allowance or had accused the then Tory government of plotting to end it.

Many on the left are particularly exasperated that just two months into a Labour government, it is them who cuts the allowance and the Tory opposition is joined by every single party in opposing the move.  Shame on you, Keir.  You may unite this country, after-all... against you!

STRIDE FALLS IN ROUND TWO

Mel Stride has been eliminated in the second round of the Tory leadership contest.  The little known frontbencher did not add to his tally of 16 votes from the first round and finished last.

Priti Patel's first round votes were distributed between Kemi Badenoch (+6), Robert Jenrick (+5) and Tom Tugendhat (+4).  James Cleverly did not add to his total of 21, meaning he finished joint third alongside Tugendhat.  There was an extra vote in play this time, with only two MPs not bothering to vote - compared to three last week.

The next stage of voting - again involving MPs - is not until October 9.

William Hill have currently got Jenrick as the favourite on 11-10.  Badenoch's odds have shortened to 6-4, while Cleverly has drifted to 8-1 and Tugendhat has overtaken him on 7-1.

TOON TUESDAY #22

Tony Blair was given a BBC platform last week to spout his globalist message, voicing his opposition to nation states, national identity and the rise of so-called 'populist' parties.  He also promoted the most prized objective on his mandate for world tyranny - the biometric digital ID card.

The digital ID card is the gateway to the total annihilation of individual freedom and privacy, paving the way for facial recognition and financial control through Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Blair's tyranny is the focus of this recent masterpiece from former Telegraph cartoonist Bob Moran.  Click and enlarge for countless Easter eggs referring to the state of our nation and the globalist agenda...

CUT THROAT COUNCILLOR FACES TRIAL

Cllr Ricky Jones making the cut throat gesture

The Labour councillor who declared that the 'far right' should have their 'throats cut' during a left-wing counter-protest will face trial in January.  Cllr Ricky Jones, of Dartford Borough Council in Kent, denied a charge of encouraging violent disorder during a hearing at Snaresbrook Crown Court last week.

The 57-year-old was arrested and charged after video footage of his remark circulated online.  Jones made the comment as he addressed protesters in Walthamstow on August 7, who responded with cheers and applause.  He has been remanded in custody since his arrest and made his not guilty plea via video link from HMP Wormwood Scrubs.  He will remain in custody until a bail hearing, a date for which has not yet been set.

The trial is due to commence on January 20 and is expected to last five days.